Fish: If there were any fish native to the Delta that seemed tailor-made to withstand the drought, it would have to be the Sacramento perch. And yet the Sacramento perch is almost certainly extinct in the Delta.

Aquatic: In the last few decades, the Bay Delta's ecological productivity has dropped catastrophically. And the likely culprits are tiny, have hard shells, and live in the estuary in unimaginable numbers.

Guides: Despite a couple centuries of seemingly rampant development, we still have a few pieces of the natural Los Angeles coast, some of it remaining because of fierce political battles to preserve it.

Aquatic: Some endangered species look like they might merit legions of squeeing fans on YouTube. And one such critter still ekes out a living in San Francisco Bay's beleaguered but recovering salt marshes.

Birds: When the first western naturalists to visit San Francisco Bay arrived in 1816 aboard the Russian ship Rurik, there were an estimated 200,000 acres of salt marsh fringing the Bay's shores. By the 1990s, about 95 percent of that original salt marsh habitat had been lost.

Birds: The tricolored blackbird used to be California's most common bird. Now, it's unusual to see one in many places where it was once prevalent. And the state of California just decided it doesn't need protection.

Guides: Orange County isn't all upscale shopping, gated communities, and the 405. It's also got quite a bit of wild nature still left within the county lines -- including a string of wonderful wetland preserves along the coast.

Commentary: Changes to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act could give a tool to law enforcement agencies to crack down on the worst environmental violators. But if those changes aren't done right, they could pull the law's teeth -- and consign North American birds to more and more deaths.

Fishing: Pacific sardine stocks off the coast of California are collapsing faster than anyone expected, and the agency responsible for regulating the West Coast's fisheries has banned commercial fishing of sardines for the next 15 months.

Mammals: An endangered species of vole that scientists once thought had gone extinct will be going through a rite of passage next week, as biologists release some of the wild voles' captive-bred progeny back into their natural desert wetland habitat.

Mammals: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is announcing this week that it won't be adding the Humboldt marten to the Endangered Species list, prompting a promise from one environmental group that it would sue to reverse the decision.

Photovoltaic (PV): A proposed solar power plant that some opponents are calling "the worst renewable energy project currently under consideration" in California just found itself some significant opposition.

Mammals: Staff at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area got some welcome news by way of a camera trap recently: A 15-month-old puma kitten who had been feared dead showed up looking quite healthy in some of the images.

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